Commercial buildings are predominantly masonry, a construction of stone or similar materials such as concrete or brick. A portion of the building structure that transmits the building load to the ground is referred to as a foundation. Foundations are typically reinforced with reinforcement bars, commonly referred to as rebars. Walls are generally constructed of block having cells filled with grout and reinforced with reinforcement bar. The walls are built upon a supporting base or underlying structure referred to as a footing or footer. Footings, like foundations and walls, are typically reinforced with reinforcement bar.
Construction of commercial buildings generally begins with the formation of the footings. The footings are typically formed by arranging an array of horizontal and vertical reinforcement bars in a ditch. The ditch is subsequently filled with grout. The grout is allowed to harden to form a solid structure. The horizontal reinforcement bars reinforce the footings along a horizontal axis. The vertical reinforcement bars protrude from the footings at horizontally spaced intervals to reinforce the walls.
The vertical reinforcement bars typically extend five feet or more above the footings. In constructing walls, blocks have to be raised above the vertical reinforcement bars and lowered to the footing with the reinforcement bars extending through hollow block cells. Layers of block are laid upon one another following the same method of raising blocks above the reinforcement bars and lowering the blocks to a subsequent layer of block with the reinforcement bars extending through various hollow block cells. The blocks are typically joined to the footings and other blocks with grout. Each layer of block is commonly referred to as a course.
Once so many courses of block have been laid, and while a desired length of each spaced apart vertical reinforcement bar remains exposed beyond the block wall being formed, another length of vertical reinforcement bar is tied to the exposed portion of each existing vertical reinforcement bar. This method is continued until a wall of desired height is achieved. Once a wall of desired height is achieved, the hollow block cells are filled with grout to form a cement masonry unit (CMU).
Present methods for supporting reinforcement bar include the cumbersome method of cutting numerous pieces of wood. The pieces of wood are tightly inserted in a ditch within which a footing is to be formed. A separate piece of wood is required to straddle the top and bottom of the ditch. Reinforcement bars are tied to the pieces ofwood with tie wire. An apparatus for supporting reinforcement bar and for effecting rise to a less cumbersome method for supporting reinforcement bar is needed.